Luggage Tags

Here is a photo of all the luggage tags I have finished so far - 52 if I counted right. I am hoping today to stitch up a few more if I feel up to it. The recovery from the sinus surgery I had yesterday is good - no headache and no nausea today and just a little discomfort on my left cheek. I am still supposed to take it easy but sewing is not hard work and I have the preparation work done on about 80 more so can just sit and sew them together if I want.

The instructions for this luggage tag are posted on this blog entry. Check it out if you want to make your own tags. They are easy, fast and would make great gifts.

Several guild members took the pre-cut vinyl rectangles I brought to guild and will make some tags at their homes for me. That will help for sure to get the 300 I need to make.

Not anything else to write about except it is sunny today which is a welcome sight. The weather forecast for this weekend is snow again so better enjoy the sun while we can. Won't winter ever be over?

Lynn

Recovery

I had sinus surgery this morning and now am sitting in my recliner here at home feeling a little wiped out. No sewing today for me. The procedure was outpatient and I had to report to the hospital at 6:00 am which meant we had to leave home at 5:00 am. Not my ideal time for getting up and being on the road but at least I got released to come home early - we were back home by noon. Hopefully the surgery today will take care of my problems. I had sinus surgery in the fall of 2008 but it was more major surgery and this wasn't as long or as involved.

Well now on to more pleasant things. Am showing you a couple of photos I took in 2004 when we lived at another place. We tore the old barn down in the background the year we moved as it was in poor shape and not able to be repaired and fixed up. Hated to see it go but we needed to do that at the time to get the place ready to sell.

I thought the barn made a neat background for the photo of the crocus in bloom that year right around this time. In fact it was taken on the 14th of March that year and this year on the 14th we still had lots of snow to melt - still have some little drifts that are trying to disappear and are a little smaller each day. One of these days they will be gone.

The close up of the crocus flower shows the detail of the stamens and the color variation of the flower petals. I am not sure I have any crocus planted here where we live now but will have to do that this fall as those flowers are such a welcome sight after the winter snows.

When I am feeling better and can get outside to the cow lots I want to get some photographs of the baby calves. We have 9 calves now and probably one more soon today as a cow was in labor when we got home this noon. One of the cows had twins again, this is her third year having twins. This year the cow had one bull calf and one heifer calf.

The wind is blowing today and John is glad. The mud is drying up and the wind will help speed that process along. It is so much nicer for the cows and calves to have dry ground and not to have to walk and lay in really wet lots.

Am getting sleepy now so will prob. take a nap.

Lynn

Guild Meeting Program

I have no photos to post today, sorry. I know when I read blogs I like the photos but today is just going to be photo-less........ Changed my mind and posted this photo of a flowering dogwood tree I took last year in Paducah at the AQS show. Have been thinking and dreaming about going again this year with my two sisters, niece and friend. Besides it just feels more like spring looking at this photo rather than outside at the moment. We had snow again yesterday, not too much but enough to make the ground white. Springtime weather can not come too soon for me.

Thursday night was our quilt guild meeting night and the night I presented my program on fusible web products. I think it went over well but I know I talked too fast like I always do when I give a program. Had some good questions as I went along and they all looked and felt my samples

If you belong to a guild and members do the programs you should volunteer to give one one on something you know or something you want to learn about if you can do research on the subject. I really wanted to know the difference between fusible web products so volunteered to do a program on it. That forced me to do the research and get the samples done.

I wanted to know how they differed in weight - there is a big difference. I presumed that Heat and Bond Lite and Steam A Seam Lite would be about the same weight. I was wrong. Steam A Seam Lite is so much lighter weight when fused than the Heat and Bond Lite. The Heat and Bond Lite was more the weight of the regular Steam A Seam.

I wanted to know how they stuck after washing. Some did better than others and I learned that you have to read the directions on the application of the fusible products as they do vary and it does make a difference. I had one sample that did not stick well at all so made another sample and re-read the directions and fused accordingly. This time it worked really well.

I learned how to transfer your designs to the back of fabric fused with Misty Fuse - a non paper backed web. You draw you design in pencil onto parchment paper and iron it to the fabric and the lines transfer to the back of the fused fabric. I really like the weight of the Misty Fuse as it is so fine and so soft but never wanted to draw directly on the back of the fused fabric and most of the time I couldn't see through it to trace the shapes.

I learned from the International Quilt Study Center research paper that if you are making a quilt you want to last over a 100 years and be handed down generation to generation you should not use any fusible of any kind. That includes basting spray, fusible webs and fusible battings. The fusible battings did hold up better than the other two types of products though. The research they did on aging and light was very interesting. You can read their findings here and also a followup question and answer document.

This is just a little I learned, so as you can see it was well worth my time to give this program as I learned probably more than the members did since I was the one doing the research and testing samples of the different products.

Small guilds like the one I belong to can't afford to get in the big name speakers all the time and depend on their members to give programs too. Don't be afraid to do it if you have not given a program before. Every guild has members of all different levels of expertise and even though I have belonged to the guild since the beginning of time and have quilted for over 35 + years and given many, many programs I really enjoy all the programs we have. No matter how much you think you know about a subject you can always learn more - I always do. Remember your guild members are your friends and you are just showing your friends something new - they will appreciate the time and effort you put in and will learn something from you too.

Off my soapbox now....Have a great day.
Lynn

Fabric Luggage Tags

Warning....This is a very long post including lots of photos. You know photos tell a story sometimes better than words so I took lots of photos of the different steps to make this fabric luggage tag.

A friend asked me to make these tags for her - lots of tags. Well, she wants me to make 300 to be exact and that is a lot of tags. Last fall I asked if guild members would like to help with this project and several did say they would so will get some help getting them done. I have already made 52 in 3 days so they do go fast.

OK, let's get started....
* Cut 2 pieces bright fabric - 6" x 3 1/2"
* Cut 1 piece of interfacing - 5 3/4" x 3 1/4" (This can be fusible but I used an old fabric I wanted to get rid of - it will be hidden so any ugly fabric will work.)
* Cut 1 piece narrow ribbon - 11" long. It can be satin ribbon, gross grain ribbon or twill tape.
* Cut 1 piece of clear vinyl 2 3/4" x 4" (not pictured below)

Fold and press under 1/4" to the wrong side of one short end of each of the bright fabric rectangles.

Fold ribbon in half and pin the raw edges of the ribbon to the center of the right side of one of the fabric rectangles' short ends. (Not the end that you pressed the 1/4" under.)

Place the piece of interfacing under the fold of the second piece of bright fabric rectangles, centering it between the sides on the wrong side of the fabric.

Place the rectangles right sides together and match up the folded edges and all the outside edges, pinning where necessary.

Peek at the ribbon inside.

Peek at the pinned end of the ribbon.

Stitch around the rectangle starting at the folded edges backstitching the beginning and ending, plus backstitch over the place where the ribbon is pinned to help secure it. You don't want it to pull out of the finished tag.

I like to stitch from the interfacing side so I can make sure it has not shifted out of place. Sometimes I don't even pin the layers together - only pinning the ribbon so then it is doubly important to stitch from the interfacing side. Do NOT stitch the folded ends at this time!

Here is the stitched rectangle from the other side, the side without the interfacing.

Clip the corners without clipping the stitching to help eliminate bulk.

Clip all 4 corners.

Grasp the folded ribbon and turn the luggage tag right side out. Use a point turner to push out the corners. Press flat.

Cutting the vinyl can be a problem - the problem being that you can't see it as soon as you lay a ruler over it. I finally figured out how I was going to deal with it and get accurate cuts. I straightened one edge then laid it along one of the lines on my cutting mat and cut a 4" width following the lines on the mat. I trimmed the end even with a line then used my ruler to slice off the 2 3/4" pieces using the lines on the mat to know where to cut. I had to slide the vinyl up to a line for each slice but at least it worked. I stacked the cut pieces alternating lengths on a piece of paper, ten to each paper so I cold keep track of how many pieces I had cut. The vinyl tends to stick together so that is why I switched the lengths back and forth so I can get hold of one when I want to use it.

Lay the vinyl rectangle over the tag with one short end even with the un-stitched end of the tag and the two long sides of the vinyl even with the long outside edges of the tag. Top stitch around the entire tag about 1/8" away from the outside edge. This will catch 3 sides of the vinyl. Do not stitch the other short end of the vinyl as you need to leave it open so the paper tag with your name and address can be inserted.

The sewing machine foot may stick to the vinyl when stitching, mine did. To solve this problem I laid a piece of fabric just inside of where you are going to stitch. (You could use a piece of paper too.) The presser foot will slide along the fabric/paper and stitch along just fine. I also run the other toe of the presser foot almost off the tag as this also helps it move along. When I ran the entire presser foot on the tag that outside toe would drag on the vinyl and make a mess so it works much better the other way.

Added information: After making more of the luggage tags I have found that using a walking foot to stitch the plastic on works so much better than the above method. The foot doesn't stick to the plastic and moves along evenly with out any paper or fabric under the toe of the foot. You will enjoy stitching the plastic on using the walking foot much better than the other method. (If your walking foot still sticks to the plastic use a piece of paper or fabric under the toe that is riding on the plastic, even if it sticks the walking foot still works better than the regular foot.)

All Done! Insert the paper tag with your name, address, etc and attach it to your suitcase, sewing machine case, computer bag, etc.

Did you make it to the end of this long post- sorry it was so long? Hope it entices you all to make a luggage tag or two though. They would make great gifts too. I would suggest that you use bright fabrics for the tags that are used on luggage so the luggage is easy to spot on airline luggage carousels. You know how all the bags look the same when you are trying to find yours.

Until later,
Lynn